Two Rooms and a Boom is a social game where each player will secretly get a role. Then they are divided into two rooms and the terrorists are trying to get the bomber to be in the same room as the president by the end of the game. I felt like this was a very challenging game for our class because a lot of the kids in the class are international students. Since the rulebook was so sparse online and you couldn’t read about the different roles before class and all of these classes were taught out loud in English the international students struggled with learning the game at first. Also, I was often in rooms where people were speaking primarily Chinese and I couldn’t participate. Sadly, I really did not like this game because the reasons I outlined but also because I just generally don’t enjoy social deduction games. I think the only social deduction game I have enjoyed thoroughly is Avalon. Anyway, I did win a few times and once as the leprechaun (which I did have fun with). The hardest part of the game is as more and more roles are introduced players need to have most of the roles completely memorized as they play the game to understand everything that is happening. Also, as more roles are added the main goals of each team (i.e. protecting the president or getting the bomber to the president) are often masked by these gimmicky roles that you can transfer between players during the game and I feel like it distracts too many people from the heart of the game. There are a few leadership aspects to this game. The game makes players accept their role in a group and play it to the best of their ability. Not every person can be the president of the bomber and sometimes you have to have more of a supportive role in the group which is a good thing to learn how to do in life and in general. Also, players need to work with their team often with indirect communication so dropping hints as to who the bomber may be or who is on the enemy team that is in the same room as you. Communication in general is prioritized in this game so your team can deduce what actions to take during the end of the round. I think my friend Chris would like this game because he enjoys social deduction games with loose rules and a more “make your own fun” approach.

~ Ryan Estep